Filler creams have been used in baked goods and other foods in a variety of ways. The common use is to insert a filler cream into a baked pastry by injection. Another common method is to use a filler cream as a laminate or "sandwich" material between two cookie base cakes.
Filler cream compositions are generally comprised of sucrose or sucrose in combination with other sugars, flavorings, and oils or fats. Variations of the ingredients of a filler cream composition can lead to significantly different properties in a filler cream. Sugar combinations can cause a filler cream to be too sweet for eating in large quantities or, if artificial sweeteners are used, the filler cream can be too bitter for consumer acceptance.
The oil or fat used in filler creams can be a single oil or fat or a mixture of oils or fats. For purposes of this invention any oil or fat or mixture thereof used in a filler composition is identified by the term "oleaginous composition". Desirable oleaginous compositions used in filler creams for sandwich cookies are firm, but soft or "spreadable" at ordinary storage temperatures. Desirable oleaginous compositions must have good whipping and creaming properties that develop a filler cream with a light, consistent texture during whipping and aeration process steps. Also, desirable oleaginous compositions have a palatable flavor with little or no after taste and produce a filler cream that dissolves rapidly at body temperature when consumed. Oleaginous compositions used in commercial filler creams must have good shelf storage properties.
It is desirable for a filler cream to have a short "plastic range" in which there is a high solid fat content at low temperatures and approximately no solid fat content above body temperature. The term, plastic range, refers to the temperature range in which a filler cream fat or oleaginous composition is neither completely solid nor completely liquid. In this range the filler cream fat is pliable, but not completely fluid. A typical filler cream is manufactured from a soybean oil based oleaginous composition and sugar.
The whipping or aerating qualities of an oleaginous composition refer to the ability of that oleaginous composition to hold air incorporated into it. Air is sparged into the oleaginous composition as it is mixed at a temperature of about 95 degrees F. The air is desirably retained by the filler cream at room temperature for several months. Desirable whipping or aerating qualities in an oleaginous composition produce a filler cream that is "light" on the plate when consumed. Light characteristics of a filler cream are best understood by comparing a whipped cream product to a solid fat product such as margarine. A solid fat product melts slowly on the tongue and leaves an oleaginous coating. A whipped cream product dissolves rapidly and leaves little or no oily after taste. Aeration also controls firmness of the filler cream. Generally, increasing the aeration of a filler cream increases its softness.
The characteristics of an oleaginous composition can be altered without changing the source of the oils or fats in the composition. This is done by altering the amount of hydrogenation of the oils, the ratio of various oils to one another in the composition, and the amount of fractionation of the oils. Increased hydrogenation or fractionation usually imparts greater plasticity to an oleaginous composition. A reference detailing the properties of various food oils is Weis, Food Oils And Their Uses, The AVI Publishing Company (2d ed. 1983).
Filler cream compositions known in the art of producing cookies are usually made from inexpensive oils or fats such as soybean oil and are processed so as to achieve a stiff filler cream, which can be applied to base cakes of cookies without the use of high temperature. These filler creams are then quickly solidifed in cooliing apparatuses and remain solid and firm throughout three months or more of storage. Good storage or shelf stability characteristics are frequently achieved in a filler cream at the sacrifice of desirable mouth feel characteristics. As a result traditional filler creams made from inexpensive oils or fats and used in sandwich cookies leave an oily or waxy after taste and remain firm and partially solid at body temperature.
The shelf life of a filler cream can be improved by incorporating antioxidants into the oleaginous composition. Antioxidants prevent the development of undesirable flavors and odors associated with rancidity of fats or oils present in the filler cream. A three to nine month shelf life is desirable for commercial filler creams. Desirable shelf life or stability characteristics include resistance to structural, microbial, flavor, and color degradation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,244,536 to Kidger discloses a process for making a traditional filler cream used in sandwich cookies. The oleaginous composition used in this invention contains two components. The first component is a commercially hydrogenated fat with a high content of C.sub.18 fatty acids. The second component, which is a vegetable oil containing component, has a high proportion of lauric acid. These two components are blended and subjected to interesterification. Any animal fats or vegetable oils can be used as the first component for this invention. Tallow and lard are preferred for use as the second component. The vegetable oils used for the first component are identified in the various embodiments as coconut oil and palm kernel oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,359,228 to Lloyd et al. discloses a filler cream which has good storage properties that are achieved by incorporating dried starch conversion syrup solids into the cream. The substitution of dextrose with dry corn syrup stabilizes the moisture content within the final cookie product without producing a "gritty" filler cream.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,552 to Gaffeny et al. discloses an example of a filler cream. In this patent the filler cream is used for chocolate candies in which the oleaginous composition is altered to improve and enhance "mouth feel". The materials used in this invention are a combination of fats, sugars, water, and colloid substances. This combination is mixed and whipped together into a semi-plastic mass. The cream filler that is obtained, it is taught, does not have a texture which is either sticky or fatty-like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,557 to Suggs et al. discloses food emulsifiers which are useful in producing filler creams and other products. The emulsifiers can produce products that are light in texture.
The present invention provides an inexpensive filler cream suitable for use with sandwich cookies and other foods that remains firm during storage, has a creamy, non-gritty texture and quick "get away" characteristics when consumed. As used herein "get away" characteristics means the perception of rate of dissolution of the filler cream in the mouth. A filler cream with "quick get away" characteristics is one which is perceived by an expert taste panel as dissolving, melting, changing from solid to liquid, or disappearing quickly or rapidly in the mouth, without a waxy or oily after taste. In the filler creams of the present invention, an oleaginous composition which changes from a firm texture to a liquid within a narrow temperature range and which is essentially completely liquid at body or mouth temperatures quickens the get away characteristics of the filler cream.